Neta missing in KCR’s seat, HC asks cops to produce him today

HYDERABAD: With just 10 days left for voting in the Telangana assembly elections, a candidate belonging to the little known Samajwadi Forward Bloc (SFB) contesting from Gajwel constituency has gone missing and the Hyderabad high court has directed the police to produce him before it on Tuesday. The development assumes significance as chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is seeking re-election from Gajwel.

On Monday, SFB president Muralidhar Rao petitioned the HC stating that K Dinesh Chakravarthy filed his nomination papers from Gajwel on November 22, the last date of filing nominations. “Since then, he has been missing. Surprisingly, even the Election Commission website is showing that no record is available about this candidate from November 23 onwards. Since this is a high profile constituency, we have our own doubts over his disappearance,” Rao’s counsel said.

According to Jaya Vindhyala, counsel for SFB, the party had plans to contest all the 119 constituencies in the state but were denied the common symbol of truck midway. “Some of our candidates had to file their papers as independents. Dinesh Chakravarthy had planned a rally on November 24. When he couldn’t be seen in public, we thought that he was busy making arrangements for the rally but soon realised that he is missing,”she said.